Eagles look to bring European basketball to Newcastle
Hot on the heels of Newcastle Eagles’ announcement of their appearance in Basketball Days, a six-team tournament in Holland over the festive period, Managing Director Paul Blake has revealed plans for a pre-season tournament on Tyneside.
The club are currently in talks with several Continental teams with a view to playing a European tournament at Sport Central in the summer. Blake is keen for Dutch, Swedish and French opposition to participate with Newcastle’s twin-city Nancy mooted as a possible high profile candidate. If the club pull the tournament off it would be a great coup not only for the Eagles but for British Basketball in general and another small step along the path to the holy grail of competitive European basketball.
Before they can think of that however the Eagles take on Barsy Atyrau on 27th and the Nigerian National Team on the 28th with the playoff games and finals on 29th and 30th December in the Basketball Days tournament in Zwolle, 60 miles from Dutch capital Amsterdam. The other participants are Dutch outfit Landstede Baketball, USA’s 94Fifty Allstars and Brazil’s Gremio Mogi
Eagles will be without influential point guard Paul Gause due to a hamstring problem and key men Joe Chapman and Andy Thomson are expected to play limited minutes due to shoulder injuries. Blake sees the Event as an ideal bonding trip for the club and a chance to gauge where they are against decent level European opposition. On a personal level it is also seen as an opportunity for Eagles players to put themselves in the shop window with a host of European scouts attending.
A full fixture list appears on http://www.basketballdays.com
